Bow for archery



R. H. COWDERY BOW FOR ARCHERY May 29, 1934.

Filed March 5, 1929 @WL INVENTOR BY f J k L h ATTORNEY.

Patented May 29, 1934 BOW FOR ARCHERY Robert H. Cowdery, Geneva, Ohio,assignor to The American Fork & Hoe Company, Cleveland,

Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Application March 5, 1929, Serial No.344,287

4 Claims.

My invention relates to archers bows.

Archers bows of metallic material have been previously proposed for use,but the use of such bows has not been attended by success in all re- 5spects for a number of reasons, among which are the undue weight of thebows, improper distribution of flexure in weight, breakage of the bowsas sometimes occurs, and injury to the user as sometimes attends suchbreakage.

An object of my present invention is to provide a bow comprising limbsof tempered steel so constructed that for a given weight of steelmaterial, a high degree of efliciency in accuracy and in length offlight of the arrow, which is projected from the bow, is secured.

Another object of my invention is to provide a bow so made as topractically eliminate the danger of personal injury and destruction ofthe bow resulting from breakage of the resilient bow limbs when the bowis drawn, in use.

Another object of my invention is to provide an improved steel bow ofpleasing appearance, of high efliciency in use, and which may bemanufactured relatively inexpensively.

Another object of my invention is to provide a bow which will not besubject to warping and which will not be substantially injured ifunstringing of the bow is not done immediately after each use of thesame, as is required with present day bows.

Another object of my invention is to provide an archers bow which willnot emit an unpleasant metallic sound when an arrow is discharged fromthe bow; also, which will have limbs utilizing to the utmost theresiliency of the tempered steel, but which will not be disagreeablycold to the touch in cold weather, nor have the hard metallic surface ofsteel bows previously proposed for use.

Other objects of my invention and the invention itself will becomeapparent by reference to the following description of a preferredembodiment of my invention which is illustrated in the accompanyingdrawing, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of a bow which is an embodiment of myinvention;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged view of a tip end of the said bow;

Fig. 3 is an elevational view of one of the limbs of the bow of myinvention, the outer resilient sleeve being removed;

Fig. 4. is a side elevational of the limb of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a view mostly in section of a portion view of a fragment ofthe hand grip and parts associated therewith for the said how;

Fig. 6 is an end view of the bow handle of Fig. 5;

Figs. 7 to 13, inclusive, are views taken on the lines 7-7, 38, 99,l010, 1l11, 12-12 and 13-l3 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 14 is a view taken on the line l5-15 of Fig. 5;

Referring now to the different figures of drawing in all of which likereference characters are employed to indicate the same parts, at 1 and2,

I show a pair of like bow limbs, each containing resiliently envelopedblades 3 of highly tempered steel and each alike being gradually taperedin transverse cross section proceeding from their shank portions shownfor the limb 2 at 4, to their tips 5. Each of the limbs terminate attheir tips in bow-string supporting hooks 6. The bow limbs are joined bya so-called paradox, said paradox comprising a tubular metallic sleeve 7which supports a hand grip 8, which is provided in the form of anannular sleeve 26 telescoped over the tubular sleeve 7, and which iskept in place in the position best indicated in Fig. 1, preferably bymeans of fibre collars 27 and 28 which are rigidly secured in place onthe exterior surface of the tube 7 in compressive contact with the grip;tubular sleeve 9 are forced onto the ends of the tube 7, and retain thecollars in place.

Telescoped within the tube 7 is disposed a tubular sleeve 15, which, asillustrated, is preferably formed in transverse section, of hollow U-shape. The convex wall 24 of the sleeve 15 is preferably arcuate in theform and preferably corresponds in transverse curvature to the curvatureof the inner wall of the tube 7.

The sleeve 15 is wedged tightly in place in telescoped position withinthe tube 7 preferably by a wooden wedge 19 projected from opposite ends9 of the tube '7 and which is complementary to the concave wall 20 ofthe sleeve 15, being of generally gibbous form. I preferably make thesleeve 15 from a relatively thin-walled cylindrical steel tube byinfolding lateral portions of one side of the tube so as to give it theresilient form which in transverse sections is approximately U-shaped,with rounded edges.

Both of the bow limbs vary in form progressively from their shanks 4,held within the paradox, to their tips. The bow limbs each comprise anintegral steel blade 3 tightly encased in a resilient tubular envelope10. The blade in portions nearest the shank 4 is provided with inclinedlateral walls 30, which are more nearly other material forming 'tiveeffort which can only be 2 1 straight than are the more arcuate walls,such as 31 and 32, progressively disposed nearer and nearer the tipportion of the limb. Expressed in another way, the bow limbs are archedtransversely in all sections, proceeding from their shanks to theirtips, being more abruptly arched in portions near the shanks 4 andproceeding progressively to a more flattened arch form as shown by Fig.12. At the tips the metal is formed in such a way as to provide strongsupporting dome shaped tip ends 5, adapted to support the tips 6, whichare integrally formed as a projection of the channel blade 3 of the limbas best illustrated at the bottom of Figs. 2 and 3.

The resilient envelope 10 for each bow limb is of especially taperedform adapted to tightly and compressively encase the bow limb. Thisenvelope may be made of varying materials such as vulcanized rubber, orpreferably of a cellulose composition commonly called in the trade,Pyroxyline, which may be colored to closely resemble wood, the coloringcomprising a longitudinally extending grain effect. The cellulose or theenvelope is preferably formed before application to the bow limbs, andbeing expansible under the eiTect of heat, is preferably warmed duringapplication to the bow limb. Considerable care in applying the envelopeto the bow limb is necessary to avoid fracturing the envelope.

This envelope, when cooled to the temperature of the blade, modifies theaction of the blade in a very advantageous way, by stiffening the blade,and subduing tendencies toward segmental vibrations. Also it acceleratesthe reaction when the arrow is loosed. Moreover, it very materiallyreduces the possibility of breakage of the blade, and at the same timeshould a blade be broken upon an undue drawing of the bow by'an archerusing it, the envelope being resilient and flexible to a considerabledegree, will retain the broken ends, resisting the independent movementof the ends and restrain the rearward movement of the archers hand, withwhich he accomplished the draw on the bow-string.

In addition to the above, the envelope dampens the metallic sound of theblade, which otherwise would be unpleasantly audible, avoids the chillfeel of the metallic blade when the same is touched by the hand andvisually appearing like wood, gives to the blade all of the advantageousproperties of a wood bow limb, at the same time preserving and adding tothe efficiency of retracsecured by the use of tempered steel blades.

Having tightly wedged the bow limb receiving tube 15 into the paradoxtubular body '7 by means of the driven wood-wedge 19, the end caps orsleeves 9 are tightly pressed on to the ends of the tube '7. The endwalls of each of the caps 9 contain an approximately U shaped slotformed soas to be capable of alignment with the bore of similar crosssectional form, provided through the tubular sleeve 15, whereby theshanks 4 of the bow limbs, which are likewise approximately U- shaped intransverse cross sectional form, may be projected through the alignedslots in the caps and into the interior of the tubular sleeve againstthe compressive effect of the wood wedge tending to force the concavewall of the sleeve inwardly.

A very tight fit of the limb shankswithin the sleeve 15 of the paradoxis accomplished by preferably making the shank portions 4 slightlyreversely tapered in cross-sectional form at its end so that a graduallytighter and tighter fit is had by the shanks as they are projectedwithin the tubular sleeve, and whereby the sleeve will very tightly gripthe shanks, by the resilient pressure of its metallic walls and by thecompressive effects of the wedging wood strip 19.

Also, preferably, the shank portions of the limbs are so formed thatcross-sections disposed progressively nearer the ends of the shanks areof progressively differing channel form, the depth of the channel beingprogressively made less and less as also is the spacing between the twolateral portions thereof. This is illustrated in Fig. 3.

Although both of the bow limbs may be made removable, I preferably sotightly wedge one of the limbs, 2, within the tubular sleeve 15 that anyordinary pull will not remove this limb of the bow and I sometimesincrease the difiiculty of removal of one of the limbs, such as 2, byfirst coating it with a cementitious substance prior to inserting itwithin the sleeve.

A bow constructed as described can be made in quantities of uniformlygood quality and without any reasonable liability of being broken inuse. The outer metallic surface of the bow, comprising surfaces of thelimbs and the tubular paradox may be given a suitable rust-proof coatingso as to avoid deterioration through rust.

Having thus described my invention, I am aware that numerous andextensive departures may be made from the embodiment hereinillustratedand described but without departing from the spirit of myinvention.

I claim:

1. A bow comprising a pair of limbs, each including a tapered blade ofapproximately U'-form in transverse sections, and a resilient,relatively flexible tubular envelope tightly encasing the blades.

2. A bow comprising a pair of limbs, each including a tapered blade ofapproximately U-form in transverse sections, and a resilient, relativelyflexible tubular envelope of cellulose material and having a bow limbback wall stretched between the lateral edges of the blades.

'3. A bow comprising a pair of limbs, each including a tapered blade ofapproximately U-form in transverse sections, and a resilient, relativelyflexible tubular envelope tightly encasing the blades, the sectionsnearest the shank being progressively more sharply arched than thoserela- -tively more remote therefrom.

4. In a bow for archery, the combination with 'a hand grip, of a pair ofresilient bow limb blades formed of tempered steel material, rigidlysecured thereto and extending in opposite directions therefrom, each ofthe blades comprising resilient portions of approximately U-shapedcross-sectional form, of progressively graduated crosssectional areas,integral bow-string supporting horns at the tips of the blades, and aflexible, re- 3 silient, tubular envelope tightly encasing the blades.

ROBERT H. COWDERY.

